NJ Student Donates 10,000 Books That Will Be Given To NYC Schoolchildren

Lucas Gabriel, 14, left, a 9th grade student at Christian Brothers Academy, Lincroft, N.J., and Noreen Tomassi, executive director for the Center for Fiction, tour the organization's book collect on Friday, April 22, 2011, in New York. Gabriel donated 10,000 books he collected for distribution to city schools through the center's "Books for NYC Schools" program. "It's incredible the amount of books we were able to get," said Gabriel, who had set a target of 5,000 books, but got twice the amount in a week.

Gabriel, a student at the Christian Brothers Academy, started to collect the books as part of a school volunteer project after finding out that many children don’t have access to books in their homes.

(credit: Associated Press)

“I had to do community service for my school, but it turned out that I felt that everyone should have the opportunity to be able to go somewhere and just have books and be able to read,” Gabriel told reporters, including 1010 WINS’ Stan Brooks.

He walked around his neighborhood in Englishtown, handed out pamphlets and sent emails to parent clubs. Before long, Gabriel exceeded his goal of collecting 5,000 books and ended up with 10,000 filling up just about every room in his parents’ home.

Gabriel pointed out that three schools in particular helped donate many of the books, including Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft along with Clark Mills and Yellow Duck Nursery School in Manalapan.